Two questions from a novice (very)

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clare p

New Bee
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
96
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0
Location
East Sussex
Hive Type
WBC
Number of Hives
1 new Nuc and a swarm caught on the 10th July
Hi all

Question one

Last Saturday I caught a swarm, for two weeks lots of bees had been buzzing around my neighbours front door so I set up a hive with 2 frames in it and smeared in a smidgen of honey (probably theirs) and left it there, on saturday the swarm moved in, we sealed up the hive and moved it a few miles away to my mums and the following day filled it up with the rest of the frames and a feeder.
I went up today (7 days on) to have a look and they have emptied the feeder (2 litres) and have really gone to work on the frames, they are filling them up with honey, some are capped there is pollen stored and there are loads of bees!!!! I could not see the queen but the frames were thick with bees and on the two original frames it was so thick with bees I could not see whether there was any brood. Tomorrow I am going up to fill the feeder again.

Should I look for the queen or accept that as they are bringing in lots of pollen there should be one present? There are also loads of drones hanging around in their hoodies by the entrance, is this normal?

Question two

The morning that the swarm arrived I collected my new nuc. My last attempt at bee keeping ended this winter with a hive full of dead bees and me unable to talk about it (too upset and cross with myself) so I started again last saturday determined to do better by them!
Was sitting eating my toast this morning by the hive I saw a bee carrying out a dead yellowy WHITE bee !!
Why was the bee white? is it a bad sign?

thank you in advance for your answers to all the questions I will be asking in the near future

Clare
 
Hello clare.

Well done baiting a swarm. (However generally inadvisable to go smearing honey around... spreads disease...very dangerous to smear imported honey).

Suggest you stop feeding them (unless you live somewhere where there isn't much nectar about) and also look more carefully for eggs next week. Make the bees move along if you can't see in the cells.. blow on them or smoke them so that you can have a good look. You don't need to find the queen if you can find eggs.

I have noticed that the hives with unmated queens attract more drone interest, but no-one else has said this, so might not be true! Pollen usually, but not always means brood.

Throwing out a white (very young bee that died in its cell before emerging?) bee might just be good hygienic behaviour. Also look up chalkbrood.

Hope this helps.
 
First welcome, hopefully we will all be able to help you with your questions

But i have one question of you, where are you, ther UK is a big place and climate and timings differ from cornwall to scotland...it better to edit your profile to show your town rather than just uk

1) swarm, if it seems ok at present, i would not worry about finding the queen at present, the two first frames would seem to indicate you have brood

i would not feed IF YOU are inexperienced as the flow is on and too much syrup close at hand can cause honey block...they pack honey/syrup in all the cells and they biuld QC as the queen has no where to lay, so unless it is really bad weather or you monitor for stores in the brood i would leave the feed off
2)Just monitor your brood, this could be one off, house cleansing of a dead pupa that has got cold (chill brood) it could be excessive varroa causeing deformed wing Virus...one white Bee (really pupa stage Bee) no problems...lots....worry
 
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